8.  The applicant was born in 1923 in the municipality of Mērdzene (district of Ludza, Latvia). He held Latvian nationality until 12 April 2000, when he was granted Russian nationality by a special decree issued by the President of the Russian Federation, Mr V. Putin.
9.  On 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, of which Latvian territory formed a part. The lightning advance of the German Army (Wehrmacht) forced the Red Army to leave the Baltic region and withdraw towards Russia. The applicant, who was living near the border at the time, followed. By 5 July 1941 the whole of Latvia had been overrun by the Wehrmacht. The three Baltic States and part of Belarus were joined to form a vast territory administered by the Reich Commissariat for the Eastern Territories (Reichskomissariat Ostland), which took orders directly from Berlin.
10.  After arriving in Russia the applicant initially found work on a collective farm (kolkhoze). He was subsequently employed as a metal turner in a factory that manufactured military equipment. In 1942 he was called up as a soldier in the Soviet Army and assigned to the reserve regiment of the Latvian Division. From 1942 to 1943 he received special training in sabotage operations (подрывники in Russian), during which he learnt how to organise and lead commando raids behind enemy lines. After completing his training he was immediately promoted to the rank of sergeant. Shortly afterwards, on the night of 23 June 1943 he and some twenty fellow combatants were parachuted into Belarus territory, which was then under German occupation, near the Latvian border and thus to the area where he was born.
11.  After landing, the applicant joined a Soviet commando unit (composed of members of the “Red Partisans”) called the “Vilis Laiviņš” after its leader. In March 1944 he was put in command of a platoon by his two immediate superiors, whose primary objectives according to the applicant were as follows: to sabotage military installations, communication lines and German supply points, to derail trains and to spread political propaganda among the local population. The applicant claimed to have derailed 16 military trains and caused 42 German military targets to be blown up.
12.  On 27 May 1944 the Red Partisans attacked the village of Mazie Bati (municipality of Mērdzene, district of Ludza), which at the time was approximately 80 kilometres from the front.
13.  The events of 27 May 1944, as established by the public prosecutor's office and the Latvian courts, and acknowledged by the respondent Government may be summarised as follows.
14.  In February 1944 the German Army discovered and wiped out a group of Red Partisans led by Major Chugunov who were hiding in a barn in the village of Mazie Bati. The applicant and his unit immediately suspected the villagers of having spied for the Germans and of having turned Chugunov's men in to the enemy. It was then decided to take reprisals against the inhabitants of Mazie Bati.
15.  Meanwhile, in constant fear of an attack by the Red Partisans, the male inhabitants of Mazie Bati – who up to then had not carried weapons – sought assistance from the German military administration, which ultimately provided every man with a rifle and two grenades “for his own protection”.
16.  On 27 May 1944 the applicant and his men, who were armed and wearing Wehrmacht uniforms to avoid arousing suspicion, entered the village where the inhabitants were preparing to celebrate Pentecost. The commando unit split up into a number of small groups each of which attacked a house on the applicant's orders. Several Partisans burst into the home of a farmer, Modests Krupniks, seized weapons they found there and ordered him out into the yard. When he pleaded with them not to kill him in front of his children, they ordered him to run towards the forest before opening fire when he did so. Krupniks was left, seriously wounded, on the edge of the forest, where he died the following morning from a massive haemorrhage. Although the surviving villagers heard his screams and groans, they were too afraid to go to his aid.
17.  Two other groups of Red Partisans attacked the homes of two other farmers, Meikuls Krupniks and Ambrozs Buļs. Meikuls Krupniks was seized in his bath and savagely beaten. The Partisans took the weapons they had found in the two villagers' homes to Meikuls Krupniks' house. There they fired several rounds of bullets at Buļs, Meikuls Krupniks and Krupniks' mother. According to the initial findings of fact by the prosecutor's office and the first-instance court, it was the applicant himself who killed Buļs. However, he was subsequently acquitted in relation to that incident (see paragraph 45 below). Meikuls Krupniks and his mother were seriously injured. The Partisans then doused the house and all the farm buildings (including the barn and stable) with petrol and set them alight. Krupniks' wife, who was nine months pregnant, managed to escape, but was seized by the Partisans and pushed through a window of the house into the flames. The following morning the surviving villagers found the charred remains of the four victims. Mrs Krupniks' body was identified by the badly burnt skeleton of the baby lying next to her.
18.  A fourth group of Partisans burst into Vladislavs Šķirmants' home, where they found him on his bed with his one year-old son. After finding a rifle and two grenades hidden in a cupboard, they ordered Šķirmants – who was still in his underwear – to go out into the yard. They then bolted the door from the outside to prevent his wife following him, took him to a remote corner of the yard and shot him dead.
19.  A fifth group attacked the home of Juliāns Šķirmants. After finding and seizing a rifle and two grenades, the Partisans took him out to the barn, where they executed him.
20.  Lastly, a sixth group attacked Bernards Šķirmants' home, seizing the weapons they found there. They then proceeded to kill Mr Šķirmants, wound his wife and set all the farm buildings on fire. Mr Šķirmants' wife burnt to death in the fire with her dead husband lying beside her. According to the initial domestic decisions, it was the applicant himself who killed Šķirmants. However, he was later acquitted of that charge (see paragraph 45 below).
21.  According to the prosecution's initial findings of fact, the Partisans pillaged the village before leaving and made off with clothes and food, in addition to the weapons. In particular, before leaving Juliāns Šķirmants' house they stole a tub of butter and a roll of material. This factual finding did not, however, appear in either the final judgment on the merits or the final judgment on the appeal on points of law, both of which refer only to the seizure of the weapons found in the villagers' homes.
22.  The applicant contests the factual findings of the domestic courts. In his estimation, all the victims of the attack were collaborators and traitors who had delivered Major Chugunov's platoon into the hands of the Germans in February 1944 by ruse, while Meikuls Krupniks and Bernards Šķirmants were Schutzmänner (members of the German auxiliary police force). In February 1944 Chugunov's group of Partisans – comprising nine men, two women and a small child – had taken refuge in Krupniks' barn. Three women (Krupniks' mother and wife and Bernards Šķirmants' wife) brought them provisions and assured them that the Wehrmacht was some distance away. However, while the women kept watch, Šķirmants sent Krupniks to alert a German garrison stationed in the neighbouring village. On arriving in Mazie Bati, the German soldiers had machine-gunned the barn with incendiary bullets causing it to catch fire. Any member of Chugunov's group, including the women and the child, who tried to escape was shot dead. After the carnage, Krupniks' mother had removed the coats from the bodies. For its part, the German military command had rewarded the villagers concerned with firewood, sugar, alcohol and a sum of money.
23.  Approximately a week before the events of 27 May 1944, the applicant and all the men in his platoon had received a summons from their commanding officer. He had informed them that an ad hoc military court composed of members of the detachment had delivered judgment against the inhabitants of Mazie Bati allegedly implicated in the betrayal of Chugunov's men and that their platoon was required to execute the order. More specifically, they were required to “bring the six Schutzmänner from Mazie Bati to stand trial”. The applicant had refused to lead the operation as the villagers had known him since childhood and he feared for the safety of his parents, who lived in the neighbouring village. The commanding officer had bowed to his wishes and assigned the mission to another Partisan. In the events that had followed, it was that other Partisan – not the applicant – who had given the orders.
24.  On 27 May 1944 the applicant had followed the men from his unit, but had not entered the village. He had hidden behind a bush from which he could see Modests Krupniks' house. Shortly afterwards he had heard cries and gunfire and seen plumes of smoke. A quarter of an hour later, the Partisans had returned alone. One had been wounded in the arm; another was carrying six rifles, ten grenades and a large quantity of cartridges. All the weapons and munitions had been seized in the villagers' homes. The applicant's men told him that they had not been able to carry out their mission as the villagers had “fled while firing at them and the Germans had arrived”. In his submissions to the Court, the applicant denied that his comrades had pillaged Mazie Bati. On returning to base, the Partisans had been severely reprimanded by the commanding officer for failing to capture the wanted persons.
25.  Documents furnished by the Government from the Latvian Historical National Archives (Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs) provides the following information on the regime set up by the occupying German administration during the relevant period.
26.  By a notice published in the newspapers on 24 July 1941, the Reichskomissar for the Eastern Territories, Hinrich Lohse, ordered all citizens to surrender any firearms and munitions in their possession to the authorities within 24 hours. The notice reappeared on 1 October 1941 and 12 August 1942. Members of the Latvian auxiliary police were, however, permitted to carry firearms.
27.  Subsequently, as the front drew closer to Latvian territory and the number of Red Partisans in the border regions increased, the rules concerning the possession and carrying of firearms were relaxed. In a letter of 22 October 1998 to the Principal Public Prosecutor's Office, the Director of the Archives stated that the village of Mazie Bati was within the jurisdiction of police station no. 2 in the district of Ludza at the relevant time. Since the records from that police station had been lost or destroyed, there was no documentary evidence available to give a precise explanation for the Germans' decision to arm the villagers of Mazie Bati. However, the archives did contain a written order from the local commanding officer of the Latvian auxiliary police to the officer in charge at police station no. 1 in the same district concerning the village of Čeverova (which was approximately 20 kilometres from Mazie Bati). This document, dated 25 February 1944, reads as follows:
“In order to protect the population from attacks by pillaging bandits, I order you to set up a defence unit in the village of Čeverova (in the municipality of Cibla) composed of ten to fifteen trustworthy local men. Those selected will receive rifles and the necessary quantity of munitions. A local aizsargs [member of the National Guard] will take command of the defence unit. The selected men will be required to gather every night to mount guard and keep watch.
Report to me by 28 February on the execution of [this order].”
28.  Further, in a letter dated 27 April 1944 the same commanding officer instructed the mayors of three municipalities (including Cibla) to select a person of trust from the inhabitants of each village who would be responsible for the surveillance of strangers or suspicious individuals and informing the mayor or police where necessary. The letter stated that these measures were intended to counteract the acts of “bandits” (by which was meant the Red Partisans).
29.  In July 1944 the Red Army entered Latvia. On 13 October 1944 it laid siege to and took Riga. On 8 May 1945 the last German divisions surrendered and the entire Latvian territory passed into the control of the Red Army.
30.  The applicant remained in Latvia after the war ended. He was decorated for his military exploits with the Order of Lenin, the highest distinction awarded in the USSR. In November 1946 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1957 he graduated from the USSR Interior Ministry Academy. Subsequently, and until his retirement in 1988, he worked as an officer in various branches of the Soviet police force.
31.  On 4 May 1990 the Supreme Council of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Latvia adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence, which declared Latvia's incorporation into the USSR unlawful and null and void and restored force of law to the fundamental provisions of the 1922 Constitution. After two unsuccessful coups d'état, on 21 August 1991 the Supreme Council passed the Constitutional Law on the Statehood of the Republic of Latvia proclaiming full independence with immediate effect.
32.  By a law passed on 6 April 1993, the Supreme Council inserted into the special section of the former Criminal Code then in force a new Chapter 1-a, which contained provisions criminalising acts such as genocide, crimes against humanity or peace, war crimes and racial discrimination. A new Article 68-3 dealt with war crimes, which carried sentences of between three and fifteen years' imprisonment or life imprisonment. The same law also inserted an Article 6-1 into the Code permitting the retrospective application of the criminal law with respect to crimes against humanity and war crimes and an Article 45-1, which exempted such offences from statutory limitation.
33.  In January 1998 the Centre for the Documentation of the Consequences of Totalitarianism (Totalitārisma seku dokumentēšanas centrs), an affiliate of the Constitution Protection Bureau (Satversmes aizsardzības birojs), launched a criminal investigation into the events of 27 May 1944. It considered that the applicant could have committed an offence under Article 68-3 of the former Criminal Code. On 28 July 1998 the investigation file was sent to the Principal Public Prosecutor's Office (Ģenerālprokuratūra).
34.  In a decision of 2 August 1998, the Principal Public Prosecutor's Office charged the applicant with war crimes. On 10 October 1998 the applicant was brought before the Riga Central Court of First Instance, which ordered his detention pending trial.
35.  On 19 November 1998 the prosecution announced that it had completed its investigation and served the papers on the applicant and his lawyer. On 17 December 1998 the applicant completed his examination of the documents in the investigation file. The following day the prosecution drew up the final bill of indictment (apsūdzības raksts) and forwarded the file to the Riga Regional Court, which would sit as the court of trial. According to the bill of indictment, the prosecution had also identified most of the other former Partisans who had taken part in the Mazie Bati operation. However, they had all died in the interim.
36.  The substance of the charges was examined by the Riga Regional Court at a hearing on 21 January 2000 at which the applicant pleaded not guilty. He repeated his account of the events of 27 May 1944, stressing in particular that all the victims of the attack, including Meikuls Krupniks' pregnant wife, had been armed Schutzmänner. He denied any personal involvement in the events. As to the various documents, press articles and post-war works that attested to the contrary, he maintained that he had knowingly allowed the historical facts to be distorted for his own personal glory and in order to gain certain benefits. However, the Regional Court found that the file contained ample evidence of his guilt, namely:
(a)  The depositions of eight children of the villagers killed by the Red Partisans on 27 May 1944. Three of these children were direct eye witnesses who had seen their parents killed. The other five had been in the neighbouring village at the time or too young to understand what was happening. However, they recalled accounts of the events related by members of their families.
(b)  The depositions of 19 witnesses, including four direct eye witnesses.
(c)  Various post-war records drawn up and signed by the applicant in person in which his account of the events in Mazie Bati exactly matched the facts as reconstructed by the prosecution. In particular, he had expressly admitted shooting Ambrozs Buļs dead and burning six people alive.
(d)  Various records signed by the applicant's commanding officers, which gave a like account.
(e)  A handwritten exercise book seized at the applicant's home containing the outline of an autobiographical work he had planned to write. The description it contained of the attack on 27 May 1944 was generally consistent with the facts as established by the prosecution.
(f)  Various historical and encyclopaedic works, together with press articles and verbal accounts by the applicant which had been published in Soviet newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.
(g)  Depositions by the author of one of the aforementioned articles attesting to the fact that the description given in his article was based on the applicant's own account.
(h)  Various documents from the Latvian National Archives containing information on the villagers from Mazie Bati, and on the actions and decisions of the German military administration at the material time.
(i)  Depositions by a woman who had worked as a radio operator for the applicant's unit during the war.
37.  On the basis of all this evidence, the Regional Court concluded that the applicant had perpetrated acts that were prohibited by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Nuremberg of 8 August 1945, the Hague Convention of 18 October 1907 concerning the laws and customs of war on land, and the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Consequently, it found him guilty of the offence set out in Article 68-3 of the former Criminal Code and imposed an immediate six-year custodial sentence. Both the applicant and the prosecution appealed against that judgment to the Criminal Affairs Division of the Supreme Court..
38.  In a judgment of 25 April 2000, the Criminal Affairs Division quashed the impugned judgment and returned the case file to the Principal Public Prosecutor's Office with instructions to make additional inquiries. It stated in its judgment that there were lacunae in the Regional Court's reasoning. In particular, the Regional Court had failed to deal clearly with questions that were decisive to the outcome of the case. Thus, issues such as whether Mazie Bati had in fact been within an “occupied territory”, whether the applicant and his victims could be classified as “combatants” and “non-combatants” respectively and whether the fact that the German military administration had armed the villagers would make them “prisoners of war” in the event of their arrest remained unresolved. In addition, the Criminal Affairs Division stated that in the special circumstances of the case, the prosecution should have consulted specialists on history and international criminal law. It also decided to vary the preventive measure that had been imposed on the applicant and ordered his immediate release.
39.  The prosecution appealed on points of law against the judgment of the Criminal Affairs Division. In a judgment of 27 June 2000, the Supreme Court Senate dismissed that appeal, although it amended the reasons that had been given by the Criminal Affairs Division for referring the case for further investigation. In particular, it ruled that the Criminal Affairs Division's direction that specialist advice should have been taken on international law was unfounded as expert evidence could not be sought on questions of pure law, which were solely for the courts to decide.
40.  On 17 May 2001 the applicant was again charged with an offence under Article 68-3 of the former Criminal Code after a fresh preliminary investigation by the Principal Public Prosecutor's Office. The Supreme Court Senate designated the Latgale Regional Court as the court of first instance.
41.  The substance of the charge against the applicant was examined by the Latgale Regional Court on 3 October 2003. In a judgment delivered at the end of that hearing, the Regional Court acquitted the applicant of war crimes, but found him guilty of banditry, an offence under Article 72 of the former Criminal Code carrying a sentence of between three and fifteen years' imprisonment.
42.  After analysing the situation in which Latvia had found itself as a result of the events in 1940 and the German invasion, the Regional Court concluded that the applicant could under no circumstances be equated to a “representative of the occupying forces”. On the contrary, he had fought for the liberation of the country against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany. As Latvia had been incorporated into the USSR, the applicant's conduct had to be considered in the light of Soviet law. In addition, he could not reasonably have foreseen that he would one day be classified as a “representative of the Soviet occupation forces”. With regard to the Mazie Bati operation, the Regional Court accepted that the villagers had collaborated with the German military administration and handed over Chugunov's group of Red Partisans to the Wehrmacht and that the attack on the village had been carried out pursuant to the judgment of the ad hoc military court set up within the detachment. The Regional Court also accepted that the deaths of the six men from Mazie Bati could be regarded as having been necessary and justified by considerations of a military order. However, it found that such justification did not extend to the killing of the three women or the burning down of the village buildings. Consequently, as they had not confined themselves to executing the ad hoc military court's judgment, but had acted beyond their authority, both the applicant and his men had committed an act of banditry for which they bore full responsibility. Furthermore, as the commanding officer, the applicant was responsible for acts committed by his unit. However, since banditry did not fall into the category of offences exempt from statutory limitation, the Regional Court relieved the applicant of criminal liability on the ground that the prosecution of the offence was statute barred.
43.  Both parties appealed against that judgment to the Criminal Affairs Division of the Supreme Court. Relying, inter alia, on Article 7 § 1 of the Convention, the applicant sought a full acquittal, arguing that the law had been applied against him retrospectively. The prosecution submitted that the Regional Court had made a number of serious errors of fact and law. In its view, the Regional Court had completely neglected the fact that Latvia's incorporation into the USSR was contrary to the Latvian Constitution of 1922 and to international law and therefore unlawful and that the Republic of Latvia had continued to exist de jure. Accordingly, the applicant's conduct in 1944 could and should have been analysed under Latvian and international law, rather than Soviet law. Further, the prosecution criticised the Regional Court's assessment of the evidence in the case. In its view, the court had relied on a series of assertions by the applicant that were unsupported by any evidence. This was true of the claims that the villagers from Mazie Bati were armed collaborators of the German administration who had helped the Wehrmacht to wipe out Chugunov's Partisans; that a “court” had been set up within the applicant's detachment; and that the real purpose of the Mazie Bati operation was not the summary execution of the villagers, but their arrest so they could be brought to trial. In the prosecution's submission, the evidence it had assembled tended to indicate the opposite. The prosecution complained that the Regional Court had accepted the applicant's depositions blindly without analysing the file as a whole.
44.  In a judgment of 30 April 2004, the Criminal Affairs Division allowed the prosecution's appeal, quashed the impugned judgment and found the applicant guilty of the offence under Article 68-3 of the former Criminal Code. After reviewing the evidence referred to in the judgment of 21 January 2000 (see paragraph 36 above), it noted:
“... Thus, V. Kononov and the Partisans from the special group he commanded stole the weapons that had been delivered to enable the villagers to defend themselves and killed nine civilians from the village, burning six of them – including three women, one in the final stages of pregnancy – alive in the process. They also burnt down two farms.
By attacking those nine civilians from the village of Mazie Bati, who had not taken part in the fighting, by stealing their weapons and killing them, V. Kononov and the Partisans under his command ... committed an appalling violation of the laws and customs of war as set out in:
– point (b) of the first paragraph of Article 23 of the Hague Convention of [18] October 1907 concerning the laws and customs of war on land, which is binding on all civilised nations and forbids the treacherous killing or wounding of members of the civil population; Article 25 [of the Hague Convention], which prohibits attacks by whatever means of villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended; and the first paragraph of Article 46 [of the Hague Convention], which lays down that family honour and rights, and the lives of persons and private property must be respected.
– Article 3 § 1, point (a), of the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War ..., which lays down that persons taking no active part in the hostilities must not be subjected to violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; point (d) [of the same paragraph], which provides ... that the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples is prohibited; Article 32, which prohibits murder, torture and all other brutality against protected persons; and Article 33, which provides that no protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed and prohibits collective penalties, and all measures of intimidation, pillage and reprisals against protected persons and their property.
– Article 51 § 2 of the Protocol Additional to the [aforementioned] Convention and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts adopted on 8 June 1977 ..., which lays down that the civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack and prohibits acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population; § 4, point (a), [of the same Article], which prohibits indiscriminate attacks not directed at a specific military objective; § 6 [of the same Article], which prohibits attacks against the civilian population or civilians by way of reprisals; Article 75 § 2, point (a) ..., which prohibits violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular, murder, torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental, and mutilation; and point (d) [of the same paragraph], which prohibits collective punishments.
By acting with particular cruelty and brutality and burning a pregnant villager alive ..., V. Kononov and his Partisans openly flouted the laws and customs of war set out in the first paragraph of Article 16 of the Geneva Convention ..., which lays down that expectant mothers shall be the object of particular protection and respect.
Likewise, by burning down the [dwelling] houses and other buildings belonging to the villagers ... Meikuls Krupniks and Bernards Šķirmants, V. Kononov and his Partisans contravened the provisions of Article 53 of that Convention, which prohibits the destruction of real property except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations and Article 52 of the first Protocol Additional ... which lays down that civilian property must not be the object of attack or reprisals.
...
In the light of the foregoing, the acts perpetrated by V. Kononov and his men must be classified as war crimes within the meaning of the second paragraph, point (b), of Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Nuremberg, which lays down that the murder or torture of civilians in occupied territory, the plunder of private property, the wanton destruction of villages, or devastation that is not justified by military necessity constitute violations of the laws or customs of war, that is to say war crimes.
The acts perpetrated by V. Kononov and his Partisans must also be classified as 'grave breaches' within the meaning of Article 147 of the ... Geneva Convention...
Consequently ..., V. Kononov is guilty of the offence under Article 68-3 of the Criminal Code...
...
The material in the case file shows that after the war, the surviving members of the families of the [people] killed were ruthlessly persecuted and subjected to reprisals. Following the restoration of Latvian independence, all those killed were rehabilitated. It was stated in their rehabilitation certificates that they [had] not committed 'crimes against peace [or] humanity, criminal offences ... or taken part ... in political repression ... by the Nazi regime'...
...
45.  For the aforesaid reasons the Criminal Affairs Division found that the applicant's conduct on 27 May 1944 constituted a war crime, within the meaning of Article 68-3 of the former Criminal Code. However, it excluded from the grounds for the charge two allegations that had been made but not proved to the requisite standard by the prosecution, namely the alleged murders of Ambrozs Buļs and Bernards Šķirmants by the applicant (see paragraphs 17 and 20 above) and the torture to which he was alleged to have subjected the villagers. After finding the applicant guilty of a serious offence and noting that he was now aged, infirm and harmless, the Criminal Affairs Division imposed an immediate custodial sentence of one year and eight months, which the applicant was deemed to have served as he had spent longer than that in pre-trial detention.
46.  The applicant appealed on points of law to the Supreme Court Senate, which dismissed his appeal in a judgment of 28 September 2004 in the following terms:
“... In finding that V. Kononov was a combatant and had committed the offence in question on the territory occupied by the USSR, the Criminal Affairs Division based its judgment on the decisions of the higher representative bodies of the Republic of Latvia, on the relevant international conventions and on other evidence, taken as a whole, which had been verified and assessed in accordance with the rules of criminal procedure.
In the declaration by the Supreme Council ... on 4 May 1990 on the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Latvia, it was acknowledged that the ultimatum delivered on 16 June 1940 to the Government of the Republic of Latvia by the former Stalinist USSR should be regarded as an international crime, as Latvia was occupied and its sovereign power abolished as a result. [However] the Republic of Latvia continued to exist as a subject of international law, as was recognised by more than fifty States worldwide...
...
After analysing the merits of the judgment, the Senate ... considers that, to the extent that the Criminal Affairs Division found that V. Kononov came within the scope of Article 68-3 of the Criminal Code, ... his acts were correctly characterised, as, in his capacity as a belligerent and combatant on Latvian territory occupied by the USSR, he has violated the laws and customs of war, in that he planned and directed a military operation aimed at taking reprisals against civilians, namely peaceable inhabitants of the village of Mazie Bati, nine of whom were killed ... [and] whose property was stolen [or] burnt.
As the court of appeal (rightly) noted, neither the fact that Latvian territory was subjected to two successive occupations in the Second World War by two States (one of which was Germany; a 'dual occupation' in the words of the court of appeal), nor the fact that the USSR was a member of an anti-Hitler coalition, changed V. Kononov's status as a person guilty of a war crime.
As regards the allegation ... that, by finding V. Kononov guilty of the war crime in question the court [of appeal] violated the provisions of Article 6 of the Criminal Code ... concerning the temporal applicability of the criminal law, the [Senate] considers that it must be rejected for the following reasons.
The judgment shows that the court of appeal applied the Conventions, namely the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 .., and [its] Protocol Additional of 8 June 1977 ..., to the war crime which V. Kononov was accused of, irrespective of when they entered into force. [This is consistent] with the United Nations Convention of 26 November 1968 on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. [The court of appeal stated] that the Republic of Latvia, which had been occupied by the USSR, had not been able to take a decision [to that end] earlier. By referring to the principle of the non-applicability of statutory limitation, the court of appeal complied with the obligations arising under the international treaties and held the persons guilty of committing the offences concerned criminally liable irrespective of the date they were perpetrated.
Since the judgment characterised the violation of the laws and customs of war of which V. Kononov was accused as a war crime within the meaning of the second paragraph, point (b), of Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Nuremberg ..., and, ... by virtue of the aforesaid United Nations Convention of 26 November 1968 ..., war crimes ... are not subject to statutory limitation, ... the Senate finds that his acts were correctly found to come within Article 68-3 of the Criminal Code...
There is no basis to the argument ... that ... the Declaration by the Supreme Council on 4 May 1990 on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia and the Declaration by Parliament on 22 August 1996 on the Occupation of Latvia were mere political pronouncements which the court was precluded from using as a basis for its judgment and which could not be given binding force retrospectively.
The [Senate] finds that both declarations constitute State constitutional acts of indisputable legality.
In its judgment, [delivered after] assessing the evidence examined at the hearing, [the court of appeal] found that, in his capacity as a combatant, V. Kononov organised, commanded and led a Partisan military operation intent on taking reprisals through the massacre of the civilian population of the village of Mazie Bati and the pillage and destruction of the villagers' farms. That being so, the court of appeal rightly found that the acts of individual members of his group ... could not be seen as [mere] excesses on the part of those concerned.
In accordance with the criminal-law principles governing the responsibility of organised groups, members [of a group] are accomplices to the offence, independently of the role they play in its commission.
This principle of responsibility of the members of an organised group is recognised in the third paragraph of Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for Nuremberg, which lays down that leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the execution of a common plan are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in the execution of that plan.
Consequently, the argument that the court of appeal had used an 'objective responsibility' test to find, in the absence of any evidence, V. Kononov guilty of acts perpetrated by members of the special group of Partisans he led, without examining his subjective attitude to the consequences, is unfounded. ...”
47.  On 4 May 1990 the Supreme Council adopted the Declaration of the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia and, on the same day, the Declaration on the Accession of the Republic of Latvia to Human Rights Instruments (Par Latvijas Republikas pievienošanos starptautisko tiesību dokumentiem cilvēktiesību jautājumos). The “accession” referred to in the declaration in practice meant a solemn, unilateral acceptance of the values embodied in the instruments concerned. Subsequently, most of the conventions referred to in the declaration were signed and ratified by Latvia in accordance with the established procedure.
48.  On 22 August 1996 the Latvian Parliament adopted the Declaration on the Occupation of Latvia. The Declaration described the annexation of Latvian territory by the USSR in 1940 as a “military occupation” and an “illegal incorporation”. The Soviet repossession of the territory at the end of the Second World War was referred to as the “re-establishment of an occupying regime”.
III.